Last week I met up with Shirley, Pat and Gwen, all members of our Journal Study Group. We wandered the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

We drew, goofed off and laughed together.

I love blowzy flowers, flowers who lose their petals in a fits of turbulence, that you must wait to bloom and remain present for their opening before they topple.

And because I have been so journal quiet over here, I Figured I would let this one hang out, this is an illustration of our day. These are some of the objects I was interested in throughout the day.

Writing words to accompany my thoughts and ideas has always been a challenge for me. But I also want to remember certain verbal things. Like Gwen being miffed that the Yellow Celandine wasn't properly labeled. This a plant utilized to color illuminated manuscripts hundreds of years ago. A plant used during Shakespeare's time. I loved experiencing Gwen's indignant passion.

I drew the Spoon with Jackal Handle for my Man, it reminds me of him. This thing is at least 450 years old, such a pretty little thing.

My drawing and rendering of the Power Figure form the Dominican Republic of Congo really does the work no justice. BUT, I will remember standing and talking with Gwen and thinking about the rivets that were used and what sort of powerful items were stored in the figures belly (there are X-rays of the figures belly in the embedded link!)

I have no idea if the matte medium will hold the Yellow Celandine leaf down for any extended period of time, we will see.

As promised, here is the Art Supply Loot, bought recently.

This too was bought with in depth questions to Roz Stendahl, who in many ways is much better at organizing and rigorously distributing information than I am. I really admire her abilities on so may levels. It is important to give credit where it is due, the internet sure does make us all neighbors, doesn't it?

So here we go:

In the lower left you will see a card made by Rice Freeman-Zachery, she is such a vibrant and loving person. You should go over there and tell her I said, 'Hi'.

A couple of weeks ago my Man handed me some made Mad Money. I was so excited, I put it away and had a time listing the three things I had been dreaming on. It didn't take long to decide I wanted more watercolors. And when I went to Roz's website and saw she maintained palettes by intended activity, landscapes, portraits, drawing pups once a year at the pet store. I mean with that sort of focus how could you you go wrong? I suppose you could have so many boxes that you forget the intended one at home, note to self.

This time around I bought a Daniel Smith array of colors. It seems I felt lacking in my current red palette, So I embraced, reds, burnt yellows, and a few blues, A different dark blackish.

Mayan Dark Blue, Cobalt Teal Blue (total self love buying that color [in the past I would have thought that was a frivolous blue]), Indathrone Blue, Graphite Grey, Lemon Yellow (a long standing bright yellow in my half pans and pans.). Indian Yellow, Perione Orange, Mars Yellow, Permanent Deep Red, Napthamide Maroon, Anthaquinoid Red, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Sicklerite Genuine, Italian Deep Ochre.

I also bought a 12 watercolor box-fights 24 half pans both half and full pans to trick it out with, and a square porcelain palette with deep wells. Can we all hum in the excitement of this vast array of goods? Hmmmm.

I still have ten half pans to fill this box and as I use it, I will get to see where it is lacking and build a wishlist to fill it out. An evil plan if ever I have heard one! Ha ha!

About a month ago I went over to Deb Lacativa's blog and saw these.

Deb has been one of my longstanding blog buddies. I feel like we were both blogging in the dark ages when knitters knew where it was at but quilters hadn't cottoned on, as they say.

I could not resist these things, stuffed to the brim with shreds and shards. I started daydreaming. What could I do with those things (besides hold them close to my mouth and cuss at them?) I started thinking that perhaps I would stuff them with eucalyptus and give them a good boil, check out the cloth shreds and see if a piece comes about, hang them on the wall and continue to stuff them with my own scraps and shreds. I almost wish they were known far and wide and that a few of us would decide to do a cusspot exchange... Round and round they go, where they stop...

I am going to stuff them full and give 'em a good ol' boil. Stay tuned.

And there is a mystery at Casa Melly. The paint in the lower left half pan is of unknown origin... me thinks I resupplied that pan with the wrong color...

This is a tutorial of sorts. In this tutorial I would like you to embrace the concept of resists for paper. In a very broad sense a resist is anything that blocks or preserves an area in your painting. You could simply lay a piece of paper over your page and paint off the edge and call it a resist or you can explore the friskets and tapes available at your local art store. Getting to know what is available and how to use then is half the fun. I have created a video that shows the creation of a single page in my journal. In the video I use Magic Removable Tape. This is an easy way to create straight lines on your page.

So about using removable tape. When you apply the tape to the page, firmly push the tape onto the page. You do not want a slight buckle to occur. This will allow paint to gather in the buckle and negate the use of the tape to create a straight line in the fist place. You can cut into the tape with an Xacto knife to create curved lines too. This tape comes in multiple widths, I am using 1/2" tape in the above video. It also comes in 3/4" and wider.

This tape sometimes leaves a sticky residue after removal, in which case you can easily remove the residue with a Best-test Rubber Cement Pickup.

Sometimes this tape can make a really firm bond with the paper and doesn't want to be removed. If this occurs, simply warm the tape up with a heat gun or hair dryer. This will loosen the glue and you will be able to lift the tape off easily. For the most part this is not an issue. It is only an issue if you lean heavily on the tape with your elbow, leave the tape in place for a few weeks or do some other extreme thing to the poor tape.

If you are able to lift the tape without marring the surface or stretching the tape, the tape can be use several times before the tacky glue will become spent and tired. Check it out.

In this video I also use Zebra Sarasa Gel Retractable Roller Ball Pens (10 pack), which I like for the most part. They are water soluble and they mix well with paint! An added benefit in my eyes. BUT! They also become permanent with heat, so ironing your page will heat set these inks (awesome sleuth work on my part). The blues and dark greens are too close on color for my liking, the barrel is not indicative of the ink color as far as the blues and dark green goes. BUT! They write on top of both gouache, my beloved paint, and acrylic, my second favorite paint to journal with. I love having a set of colored pens that work well on top of paint. If you have other suggestions, please don't hesitate!

You will see the use of the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen again. I love this pen. L-O-V-E it. Last time I spoke about this pen I had a couple of people ask about it in camparison to other brush pens. Sometimes I wonder if I should start answering questions within the comments section of the blog, what do you think? At least then everyone could read my response! Anyway, I told her I like this pen because it is an actual brush, unlike Tomboy brush markers it actually has bristles, not just a felt tipped shape of a brush. This pen is expressive and useful. I want to say it is even bad ass!

I also used a Lower Case Alphabet stamp set and an alphabet stencil (whose collection I will be expanding upon, suggestions welcome)

I will be teaching Inspired Journaling at Create on Friday, August 27. Unlike this video I will also be verbal and share artistic approach, ideas about composition and playful prompts to get you thinking about what we are doing and why! I do hope you will join me.

This is a tutorial of sorts. In this tutorial I would like you to embrace the concept of resists for paper. In a very broad sense a resist is anything that blocks or preserves an area in your painting. You could simply lay a piece of paper over your page and paint off the edge and call it a resist or you can explore the friskets and tapes available at your local art store. Getting to know what is available and how to use then is half the fun. I have created a video that shows the creation of a single page in my journal. In the video I use Magic Removable Tape. This is an easy way to create straight lines on your page.

So about using removable tape. When you apply the tape to the page, firmly push the tape onto the page. You do not want a slight buckle to occur. This will allow paint to gather in the buckle and negate the use of the tape to create a straight line in the fist place. You can cut into the tape with an Xacto knife to create curved lines too. This tape comes in multiple widths, I am using 1/2" tape in the above video. It also comes in 3/4" and wider.

This tape sometimes leaves a sticky residue after removal, in which case you can easily remove the residue with a Best-test Rubber Cement Pickup.

Sometimes this tape can make a really firm bond with the paper and doesn't want to be removed. If this occurs, simply warm the tape up with a heat gun or hair dryer. This will loosen the glue and you will be able to lift the tape off easily. For the most part this is not an issue. It is only an issue if you lean heavily on the tape with your elbow, leave the tape in place for a few weeks or do some other extreme thing to the poor tape.

If you are able to lift the tape without marring the surface or stretching the tape, the tape can be use several times before the tacky glue will become spent and tired. Check it out.

In this video I also use Zebra Sarasa Gel Retractable Roller Ball Pens (10 pack), which I like for the most part. They are water soluble and they mix well with paint! An added benefit in my eyes. BUT! They also become permanent with heat, so ironing your page will heat set these inks (awesome sleuth work on my part). The blues and dark greens are too close on color for my liking, the barrel is not indicative of the ink color as far as the blues and dark green goes. BUT! They write on top of both gouache, my beloved paint, and acrylic, my second favorite paint to journal with. I love having a set of colored pens that work well on top of paint. If you have other suggestions, please don't hesitate!

You will see the use of the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen again. I love this pen. L-O-V-E it. Last time I spoke about this pen I had a couple of people ask about it in camparison to other brush pens. Sometimes I wonder if I should start answering questions within the comments section of the blog, what do you think? At least then everyone could read my response! Anyway, I told her I like this pen because it is an actual brush, unlike Tomboy brush markers it actually has bristles, not just a felt tipped shape of a brush. This pen is expressive and useful. I want to say it is even bad ass!

I also used a Lower Case Alphabet stamp set and an alphabet stencil (whose collection I will be expanding upon, suggestions welcome)

I will be teaching Inspired Journaling at Create on Friday, August 27. Unlike this video I will also be verbal and share artistic approach, ideas about composition and playful prompts to get you thinking about what we are doing and why! I do hope you will join me.

It has been interesting to think through the comments left on the last post, I am impressed with the ideas presented. Some of the comments have been taken off-line and I have had some interesting exchanges that way too. In the meantime, I have been journaling up a storm.

This page is in process. I drew the large chair on the left while sitting for coffee at Starchucks in SoHo. I drew it too small for the page, so I scanned the drawing, enlarged and transfered it back onto the same page with Saral paper. Now I want to dirty the page up but don't have the pen I would like in order to do it.

And this is my boy Arrow. I love the drawing of him. He was sitting across from my work table, staring at me, wanting my lap and yelling whenever I looked at him. He is getting old and his body is looking angular. I think I nailed his shape.

So, here are my further thoughts on journaling, visual and art.

If we are truly having the discussion on art versus craft, I would like to clarify my stance. Craft is the embrace and perfection of a technique, idea or process. Furniture making, traditional quilting, shoe making, fashion design can all be called craft and often border on the concept of art. The word craft has been maligned in the last decade and this saddens me, read this article on the name change at the American Craft Museum.

Then I think we need to think about the word craft in light of Craft Stores, you know the ones. That is where I get my beloved Craft Foam. And I must say, I love these stores, I don't know that I would have delved so deeply into art had I not had one of these stores available to me and had the chance to amble through the big ill lit space and marvel at the possibilities. Now though, I detest these stores for their cheap, low quality items.

The real discussion isn't so much is art journaling art (it most certainly is) as does it push the boundaries of self and medium.

For me, unless there is a drawn element, it is not challenging (enough). Does it push me as an artist to confront my own fears? And I do fear drawing, making mistakes, making bad drawings. Does it push me to see and evaluate the world around me? Does art journaling embrace artistic concepts of composition, color and line? Does it push me to find my voice? And that last question IS THE question for me.

I often come across all the excuses, as though learning to draw is unlike learning to drive, you either have the talent or do not. Malarche. Each and every person who decides to learn to draw needs to pick up a pencil and make the commitment to begin. All children know how to do this, we just forget as we grow older. It takes lots of bad drawings to get a good drawing, like photographers who take 100 photos to get the one great photo.

So today we will go to the Met to see the Picasso exhibit. I've gone once before, David has not. I am going to bring my journal and copy Picasso. Now he knew his stuff and he never let himself relax. He challenged all his boundaries. I aspire. And that is all I can do. Aspire to be as good as those I admire. I like that word.

It has been interesting to think through the comments left on the last post, I am impressed with the ideas presented. Some of the comments have been taken off-line and I have had some interesting exchanges that way too. In the meantime, I have been journaling up a storm.

This page is in process. I drew the large chair on the left while sitting for coffee at Starchucks in SoHo. I drew it too small for the page, so I scanned the drawing, enlarged and transfered it back onto the same page with Saral paper. Now I want to dirty the page up but don't have the pen I would like in order to do it.

And this is my boy Arrow. I love the drawing of him. He was sitting across from my work table, staring at me, wanting my lap and yelling whenever I looked at him. He is getting old and his body is looking angular. I think I nailed his shape.

So, here are my further thoughts on journaling, visual and art.

If we are truly having the discussion on art versus craft, I would like to clarify my stance. Craft is the embrace and perfection of a technique, idea or process. Furniture making, traditional quilting, shoe making, fashion design can all be called craft and often border on the concept of art. The word craft has been maligned in the last decade and this saddens me, read this article on the name change at the American Craft Museum.

Then I think we need to think about the word craft in light of Craft Stores, you know the ones. That is where I get my beloved Craft Foam. And I must say, I love these stores, I don't know that I would have delved so deeply into art had I not had one of these stores available to me and had the chance to amble through the big ill lit space and marvel at the possibilities. Now though, I detest these stores for their cheap, low quality items.

The real discussion isn't so much is art journaling art (it most certainly is) as does it push the boundaries of self and medium.

For me, unless there is a drawn element, it is not challenging (enough). Does it push me as an artist to confront my own fears? And I do fear drawing, making mistakes, making bad drawings. Does it push me to see and evaluate the world around me? Does art journaling embrace artistic concepts of composition, color and line? Does it push me to find my voice? And that last question IS THE question for me.

I often come across all the excuses, as though learning to draw is unlike learning to drive, you either have the talent or do not. Malarche. Each and every person who decides to learn to draw needs to pick up a pencil and make the commitment to begin. All children know how to do this, we just forget as we grow older. It takes lots of bad drawings to get a good drawing, like photographers who take 100 photos to get the one great photo.

So today we will go to the Met to see the Picasso exhibit. I've gone once before, David has not. I am going to bring my journal and copy Picasso. Now he knew his stuff and he never let himself relax. He challenged all his boundaries. I aspire. And that is all I can do. Aspire to be as good as those I admire. I like that word.